Frame of Mind
by notaudreyk
Summary: AU. In a world where you cannot see color until you meet your soulmate, Namine has found an amazing new life. But what happens when it is taken away? Namine/Roxas/?. Oneshot.


**A short note: This was originally written for a short story exhibit, therefore the characters might not be recognizable as Namine and Roxas. But I had them in mind while writing it, and made a few changes before publishing it here. **

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Close your eyes.<p>

Imagine your favorite place in the entire world. See it in your mind's eyes, like you were standing right there, looking in.

Now describe it. Is it lush green trees towering above you, feet crunching upon coppery brown leaves while you hike through the forest? What about the icy blue of the mountains, your breath coming out in white clouds as you gaze upon the crystalized white wonderland? Even the sky-blue walls of your best friend's bedroom, where you spent hours splayed across a flowery yellow bedspread talking about anything and everything?

Are you imagining?

Now picture it all in black and white. Worse than a cheap camera filter that intends to make the world look dramatic. Everything looks drained, leached of beauty that is obviously meant to be there.

This is our life.

In our world, we are born colorblind, only able to see black and white. No glasses, contacts, or surgery can fix how we perceive our surroundings. We are drowning in a sea of gray.

But how can we miss what we have never seen? How do we even know there is more out there? How can we crave the beauty of something we can't describe when we can't even perceive it?

Because some people can.

From what everyone has deciphered over the past four thousand or so years, you can regain your colorful vision. When you find your "soulmate". We all laughed when they figured it out, because how cheesy is that? What is this, a fairy tale, where we are broken from the spell by true love's kiss? But it's true.

I would know.

I was twenty-one and browsing through the school library in search of required reading when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It only takes a tap. Some people go around in search of the person who will unlock their true vision, making it a point to bump into people, brush against them, in hopes that their vision would light up. The people who had already found theirs at age 5, 10, 15, laughed and said to wait. But we all did it at one point; by eighteen, I had given up.

But he tapped me on the shoulder and I jumped back and knocked over a bookshelf as he gaped and started to spin around admiring the world. You don't learn the colors' names until after you see them, and all I could see was this whole new land of things I could not describe or name because everything was different in a vivid, vibrant way. And suddenly, the murky colors of the walls turned a cheery yellow and the bookshelves a dusty copper and my plain schoolbook I was still grasping onto exploded into shades of gold and scarlet.

I turned around to see his face was flushed pink, and he scratched the back of his neck and smiled at the ground as he said "I was just going to ask you if you needed help finding anything." I grinned, and within two minutes of talking, he asked me out to dinner. Within eight months, we were planning a wedding. After all, the universe has essentially picked out someone who is perfect for you. And you get the added bonus of color. How could you choose anyone else?

Because of my new gift, I switched from an English degree to an Art one. I had always been a decent sketcher, but with only two colors to work with, it got boring. My paintings were splashed with every color in the rainbow, and while only around 40% of people could appreciate it, they made up for the 60% who were stuck in black and white. With my art, and my soulmate, and the perfect element that is color, I was happy.

But they never tell you what happens if that person disappears.

I was twenty-five and hurrying through the city streets, late for a meeting with the gallery that was hosting my next art show, when the world transformed from bright lights and color to the dull, drab grayness I had lived with for so long.

Because I never was told what would happen, I'll tell you: it's all confusion. For four years I had a taste of beauty, and then it was stolen away and I didn't know why.

And while I stood there, like a rock in a rushing stream with people simply moving around me, panicking about what just happened, my phone rang.

The apologetic voice on the other end said he was so, so sorry. And then the words that no one wants to hear: there was an accident.

He was dead.

Car crash, the man said. Apparently he'd been going to buy flowers for our anniversary tomorrow. But instead, he gave me my first ever heartbreak. In one moment, I lost the man I loved, and how I would forever see the world. My livelihood, my love, my life. Wiped out.

They say when you lose someone you love, the world just seems…empty. Devoid of emotion, its usually vibrancy. Everything is dull and gray.

This time, it was literal.

I couldn't stand it. I had heard of people finding a second soulmate, and though I loved my husband very much, within two months I was purposefully brushing up against everyone I met, and sitting in public places hoping someone would tap me on the shoulder and my life would light up again. It wasn't even about the person any more, I just wanted my life back. I wanted to be excited about new places, and travel the world trying to find new colors I had never seen. I wanted to make paintings with every color in the rainbow. But I had nothing.

A year passed, shrouded in clouds of black and white. I took a job at an editing firm in New York, miles and miles away from my old life. The city wore the colors of my new/old eyes well; dark shadows case by buildings contrasted deeply with the bright white of the sun. And slowly, I began to remember that life before the colors wasn't the worst thing in the world. I made friends, explored the city, and fell in love with living life how I had before.

Until one day.

I was hurrying towards the subway; the platform was packed with people for a Monday morning. I pushed my way to the front to get on, brushing up against what must have been hundreds of people.

And then.

My world lit up.

And I whipped around, looking at everyone who was passing me by because _oh no what if I missed him what if he's getting on the train right now and I'll never see him _and I began to dash around the platform looking for someone who was doing the same, barely even noticing all of the colors being back, until…

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

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><p><strong>And now, a longer author's note, because I personally dislike when there's about a thousand sentences before the story even begins.<strong>

**Hopefully the ending didn't seem too abrupt; I debated changing it, but decided I liked it better this way. At the end, she was going to meet Riku, BTW, for all of you Namiku shippers. But the story barely showcased the characters as is, and I didn't want to add in another one.**

**Regarding the whole idea for the story: I am sorry to say that it is not mine. It is the ever popular "What if you couldn't see color until you met your soulmate" AU that we've all seen on Tumblr. Sadly, I can't find the user who posted it, so I can't give credit.**

**Anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed. Please leave a review saying so if you did! Also, favorites are nice too. :)**

**Fun author fact: I am horrible at making up titles, so the majority of my stories are simply me pressing shuffle on my ipod and writing down the first song that comes up. This was Frame of Mind by Tristam and Braken.**

**~Audrey**

**(Oh, and one last thing: I finally got my Beta profile sorted out, so if you need a Beta, please check it out! I want to be an editor, and I kind of need things to edit. ;) ) **


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